Spanish patent No. 426,978, assigned to Sociedad Anonima de Racionalizacion y Mecanizacion (Sadrym), describes a process for the manufacture of reconstituted pimiento wherein fresh pimiento is first subjected to the steps of roasting and then preservation in a saturated brine solution until needed for use. At the time of use, which may be several months after roasting, the pimiento is subjected to intensive washing and is then centrifuged to remove the water. Once free of water, the pimiento is ground in a colloid mill to produce a paste. This is mixed with a 1-10% sodium alginate solution, followed by homogenization of the mixture. The homogenized mixture is poured into a mold of suitable dimensions, and a calcium chloride solution is added to the mold to cause setting of the sodium alginate, which is said to take place after 30 to 45 minutes.
Although not mentioned in the patent, one of the intial steps of the process also involves decoring the pimiento, along with roasting. The purpose of the roasting and decoring steps is to remove the pimiento skin and seeds, respectively. The reason for this is that it is necessary to obtain a reconstituted pimiento strip of relatively uniform quality and consistency, and grinding in a colloid mill fails to reduce the particle size of the skin and seeds to the same particle size as the pimiento flesh. Such decoring and roasting substantially adds to the cost of the production.
Copending applications Ser. No. 833,471 filed Sept. 15, 1977 and Ser. No. 833,453 filed Sept. 15, 1977 describe certain process steps by which the above disadvantages of the process of the Spanish patent are overcome. However, it should be mentioned that one further disadvantage experienced with the process of the Spanish patent if adapted for continuous molding is obtaining a complete and uniform set of the pimiento strip during the setting stage, and a dimensionally uniform strip. If the formulation of the pimiento/binder is established to obtain an almost immediate fast set of the strip to maintain uniform dimensions, this resuls in a relatively hardened skin initially which slows introduction of calcium ions into the center of the strip and uniform setting or hardening throughout. On the other hand, if the pimiento/binder mix is formulated to obtain a relatively slow set, then there may be insufficient setting in the molding stage to achieve uniform dimensions.